It took quite a while, but the FAA finally did the right thing—to a point—when it announced that it would give passenger-carrying airlines two years to institute new flight/duty time rules that set new, stricter rest period requirements and flight-time limits. Of course, it punted when the air cargo lobby insisted the cost would prove prohibitive to the likes of FedEx and UPS, doing nothing but encouraging those carriers to voluntarily adopt the new rules.
But for the nation’s regional airlines, which already face a potentially crippling new law aimed at increasing pilot hiring minimums as much as six-fold, to 1,500 hours, the latest FAA rule on flight and duty time limits appears more worrisome than some in the industry might care to admit.
Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with New Jersey Monthly magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for Aviation International News in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.
